Wednesday, July 15, 2009

When we last left our beloved ursine protagonist the Cub, he had just suffered through an emotional but enlightening evening. We pick up his story the next morning, when he awakens to find his father gone but a note next to him:

Good morning young Cub! I hope you slept well. I'm sure you were hoping this note was from your father, but alas, this is the Owl speaking. He's not one for emotional words, as you know. But he did want me to tell you that he bids you farewell and sends you his unconditional love.

Now before we get to the task at hand, I also want to say I'm sorry I didn't fess up last night that I speak fluent English. While I admit part of me was just messing with you, I also think my words had more impact when I spoke my native tongue - didn't you? But okay, mostly I was just messing with you.

So anyWHOO...rest up and relax today, for as soon as the sun sets tonight (at 10pm), you must embark on your journey posthaste! While I know your ultimate goal is to find your father again, your immediate task is to unite with your true love (I told you last night who that was). She is somewhere in this forest waiting for you, and you have until sunrise (6am) to get to her.

But be careful. The forest is a dangerous and tricky place to navigate. Here are some ground rules you must abide by:

You can move north, south, east, or west, but not diagonally.

Each move in any of these directions takes you half an hour.

You must keep moving - you cannot occupy the same spot for two consecutive moves.

The forest is full of enemies and other obstacles you must avoid:

Trees - Trees are stationary. You cannot move onto a spot with a tree.

Eagles - Believe it or not, an eagle can kill you in one fell swoop. You must avoid them. Eagles move in a straight line as indicated by the green arrows. They also move one square per half hour (including the diagonal eagle). Unlike yourself, eagles are able to traverse trees.

Vultures - You must avoid them as well. Vultures move in a circular motion, as follows: Two squares north, two squares west, two squares south, then one square to the east. If by then they haven't found you, they will disappear before reaching their original starting point. Like the Eagles, Vultures are able to traverse trees and move one square per half hour.

Spurned Female Cubs - Perhaps most dangerous are your three spurned loves. They must be avoided at all costs. In fact, you cannot get within one square north, south, east, or west of any of them (diagonal is okay). They may move in a straight line (at the same speed as yourself), or remain stationary, as indicated by a green arrow or a lack of one, respectively.

You may pass Eagles, Vultures, and Spurned Loves in transition between squares, but not on a square itself. For example, if you are in a square directly to the west of an Eagle, and the Eagle is traveling west, it is OK if you move east while the Eagle moves west, thereby crossing the Eagle. You cannot however end up in a square that is occupied by an Eagle.

If you survive the perils of the forest and reach your true love in time, the forest will speak to you and tell you where you must go in the next stage of your journey to reunite with your father, as follows:

The forest will make 6 utterances during your journey.

The first four will come at midnight, 2am, 4am, and 6am, respectively.

The 5th will be spoken in code throughout the first 4 hours of your journey.

The 6th will be spoken in code throughout the last 4 hours.

If you find the correct path, you will have your answer*. However, if you go astray, the wilderness shows no mercy. You will perish.

Oh and one last thing - I hope you deciphered my reply to your third question last night. For if you don't initially head in the direction I instructed, you will never hear the words of the forest and you'll be lost forever (my instruction applies only to your first move)! Now rest up and prepare for your overnight trek.

Good luck and Godspeed, dear Cub. I am rooting for you.

Yours truly,

The Owl

So puzzlers, back to the real world here (or at least back to SoSG). It's your task to help the Cub carry out the above. Here is the layout of the forest as he embarks on his quest at 10pm (that's him in the center square):

(click image to enlarge)

Hint 1 (9:35am): there are actually two previously used devices needed. A hint for one, which was used last year, can be found "in time."

Hint 2 (11:40am): the first device requires conversion of computer-speak to people-speak. The second device requires finding the correct url.

Hint 3 (2:51pm): the Cub's first move is mandated by the Owl. His next 4 moves are determined by where he has a safe move. The rest is a combo of safety and beating the clock.

Hint 4 (3:48pm): have you ever seen a two-toned, pastel-colored forest before?

Puzzle Rules: The answer to the puzzle is a place. Comment freely in the thread, but if you have the solution, please don't give it away to everyone in the comments section. Instead, do the following:

Email us with the place the Cub must go to find his father. And please include your screen name somewhere in the email; and

Post a comment simply saying you have emailed your solution attempt. I may not be able to reply to your original email promptly, so please be patient and check back on the comment thread for the latest news; I may confirm correct answers there.

As a Grand Slam Puzzle, this one is worth 150 points.

You have until midnight PT tonight to submit your answer. Good luck!

*a device used in several previous puzzles will also be needed to translate the forest's words.

Not familiar with SoSG's off-day puzzle competition? Read up here. And join the fun!

That's correct Josh S. And the pink thing in the hair is supposed to be a bow, but I couldn't figure out if it should go in front of or behind the ear. I went with behind and thus you can't really tell what it is.

Same here. I have found *a* path that works, avoids obstacles and enemies, gets there on time. Can I rest assured that i have found *the* path, even though, so far, the utterances make no sense to me? Or might there be a dozen or so paths that work, and somehow the utterances for the correct path only will make some sort of sense immediately?

I sent you my path. No idea what to do with the cryptic utterances yet. I'd appreciate verification of the path if that's permitted. (I've checked it over a few times since and can't find any problems - but that doesn't mean I haven't missed something!)

Josh, perhaps indirectly you are at a disadvantage. I will post a hint to hopefully mitigate that.

Berko, I read your email. Not sure why you think there might be another forgotten rule. Playing mind games with the competition or giving me a hard time about forgetting a rule? I do apologize for that. But in anycase your concern/question was already asked by Josh S in this thread: Cub can go backwards as long as it doesn't violate another rule. He can't go to his original starting point though.

Just for the record though Berko, no need to justify or explain why you asked the question again - no harm in doing so.

Regarding my previous comment though - no harm in asking or even repeating questions, but please no purposely trying to mislead other puzzlers via comments (not that you were doing this Berko, but I thought it a good rule to implement).

Thanks, EK. I did not want to give away hints without your permission by describing what I did in the new path. So does that mean that my path in the new email is correct? I was hoping that at least one utterance would be clearer to me, but if you confirm my new path is correct, I'll bend my mind to deciphering utterances.

Where is Mr Customer? I hope he didn´t lose his job over the previous puzzle. Man, that´d make me feel bad. But if he did lose his job, there´s no reason he wouldn´t be working on this one. So I´m hopeful he´s still employed.

I have the path. I know what the last device is, but not what the first one is. I'm also not sure that I have the "utterances" in the first place, even though I have the path. if I do, I don't know what to do with them. Heading straight from there to the second device is not correct. I'm missing a step.

But as a corollary to the previous rule I commented at 11:46am, I'm gonna have to say please no overtly giving away answers to push yourself into the top half of answerers thereby boosting your own score.

Josh, your comment brings up an interesting point though. Is it better to wish for many to answer, thereby possibly pushing up your score (and closing the gap ahead of you i.e., between yourself and those who answered that particular puzzle before you), or fewer to answer, thereby preventing others from closing the gap behind you (i.e., those who otherwise wouldn't have gotten anything that puzzle)?

It's like pulling your goalie - is the increased chance of catching those ahead of you worth the increased risk of being caught from behind?

My comments were definitely meant as encouragement. It's just that I realized I was doing A LOT of encouragement and I didn't want it to seem like I was manipulating things, even though yes, I do want more points.

I have asked myself that very question (hint 4) already, since I know you wouldn't use the two colors arbitrarily - they must mean something. I've already tried doing things based on this, but so far no cigar.

J Steve, you may be the only one. I seem to have every piece of info I need, but I'm at a loss as to how to use it. It's maddening, since the first time I looked at the puzzle this morning, I knew the devices I would need to solve the puzzle.

Not happy. I thought I'd figured out the colors hours ago, but it still doesn't work, so I must have it wrong. I've tried a few variations, and checked details over and over. No longer fun. I don't know whether I'll feel worse to find out I've missed the meaning or still have a detail wrong. Two in a row now.

I've been paying attention to so many little things, including the colon, for about 10 hours. I've tried about 106 versions. I'm clearly missing something really obvious if so many people got it. I can't see anything that jumps out and says "this is right". With stuff like this (not the straight logical stuff but lateral thinking), if I don't get it fairly quickly, I just seem to get bogged down abd don't get it at all. I'm afraid I wasted a whole day and still missed it.